Last year, Andy Rubin — the father of Android, launched a smartphone company named Essential. Ever since the company launched its first device — Essential PH-1, popularly known as Essential Phone, it has been facing troubles.
In latest development, a new report suggests that Essential has notified Sprint that a small number of units of the Essential Phone are shipped with refurbished parts. According to the source, the affected users will receive notification which will redirect them to the Sprint website for resolution. However, it is not yet clear what the resolution will be.
The report comes from a Reddit user who claims to be working at Sprint. Neither Sprint nor Essential has given any official statement regarding this. At this moment, we couldn’t verify the authenticity of this report.
As the reports says that the affected users will get notifications, it seems that the company is aware which units are affected. The possible solution for this problem could be offering replacement, but there is no such confirmation from the company yet.
According to a report from International Data Corporation (IDC), Essential sold less than 90,000 units units of its PH-1 last year. However, the company seems to be hoping to have better numbers this year and has recently announced three new color variants.
Recent report also suggests that the company could launch the Essential Phone Halo Grey variant in India in April for about Rs. 24,999 ($386), exclusively through Amazon India. The suggested Indian pricing is considerably low given that the phone is currently available in the United States at $449.
The Essential PH-1 features a 5.71-inch IPS LCD display with 1312 x 2560 pixels resolution and comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on top. It is powered by a Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon 835 processor and 4GB RAM, coupled with 128GB of internal storage.
The phone comes with a 13-megapixel dual rear camera with f/1.9 aperture lens, an LED flash, PDAF (phase detection autofocus) and LDAF. There’s an 8-megapixel front facing camera sensor with f/2.20 fixed hyperfocal lens.
Read More: Essential PH-1 Gets New Halo Gray Variant With Alexa Built-in, Amazon Lowers Prices to $449
It is running on Android 7.1 Nougat with a planned upgrade to Android 8.1 Oreo operating system. The device, which is IP54 rated for water and dust resistance, packs a fingerprint sensor mounted on the back panel and is powered by a 3,040mAh battery with fast charging support.
(Source)
